A blog featuring Japanese kimono for sale, kimono for show, artisan crafts, and general cultural discussions.

May 25, 2018

Night Out at Yoko's

Yoko's Restaurant is one of my favourite places. Yoko is still there frequently, and the food is not just Americanized-Japanese. There are also Japanese-Japanese options, which makes me very happy. She also makes these really well-spiced apple harumaki, like apple pie in thin deep-fried shells, served with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. After the semester ended and I walked with straight-A's, my friend decided that we should celebrate with sushi. :P Of course, I had to wear kimono. What better excuse? What nicer location?

Tomoko of ChirimenBunny made me some super-cute kanzashi! Blue on blue flowers with a gold and faux pearl centre. They come with alligator clips so that they'll actually stay in my hair, which is super-fine and way straighter than I will ever be.

It's been raining for weeks. Weeks. And there's more slated for the next two weeks. The parking lot out front floods daily, but usually dries out by evening... just in time for more rain. >D So when my friend invited me out to dinner, I didn't want to wear anything that could be ruined by rainwater. And of course, pulling my outfit together and getting everything on took right up until the last minute (aaaugh, is this obi really a foot shorter than I thought?? no, no, I gained more weight...) I didn't get photos until late that night, around 11pm. It was so dark by that time that it was difficult at best to get photos... ::sighs::

I ended up choosing my old intensely-blue ro iromuji, which is fully synthetic and washable, a synthetic ro juban in pure white, a grey-blue ro obiage, pale pink obijime which picks up the same pink from the clouds in the obiage. The obiage almost matches the grey-blue in the sha obi, which is pale blue with metallic pale gold pampass grass with the same muted pastel purples, pinks, and greens with a mum design on one side of the obi. I tried for a 'fluffier' musubi but ended up not having enough obi to pull it off... now that I've gained 20lbs... thanks, fibromyalgia. I needed that. x.x The asagao fan was a gift from my homestay sister in Sapporo from 2005. I still use it all the time... It matches the iromuji perfectly!

Protip: the secret to that super-sleek, flat-looking obiage is... paper. Take a piece of plain white printer paper. Fold it in half and tear it so that it is 8.5"x5.5". Fold it into 3-4 folds so that it's wide enough for your obiage. Fold it inside the obiage close to the front. Leave room to tie the obiage. Tuck one end into the obi. Fold the other end neatly to hide the knot and tuck into the obi behind the obi-ita. The paper should be close enough to the front knot to keep that sleek look. You might need to fold the corners down in front to prevent a 'boxy' giveaway shape. All done! That's it! That's how you get that formal 'flat' look. <3